Monday, January 3, 2011

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all my blogging friends! May all of your wishes and hopes come true!
I started out the new year by scrapping. Next week hubby will be home, so I won't have much time to scrap then as we're planning to take out the kids and do some fun stuff. So, to make up for next week in advance, I've pretty much done nothing in the house these last few days but scrap LOL.

I'll start off by showing you my DT submission for this month's challenge over at Artastic. The inspiration came from Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party".

I didn't follow the painting this month, just the criteria, which are:
  1. Scrap a celebration
  2. Three or more people in the layout
  3. Food somewhere in the layout
I decided to scrap a celebration of meeting/making new friends. Last summer, I got to meet my sweet online friends Jenneke and Jeanet, and we had a wonderful day shopping for scrap supplies, talking, laughing and just getting to know each other. I so enjoyed meeting them, and I wanted my page to reflect that happy feeling. So, I chose happy colours and a happy design.

My "happy" design turned out a bit childish ... Christina, my youngest daughter, who normally adores just about everything I make, asked if it was finished already LOL. She thought it to be "empty" and not exactly "true to my own style". She might be right, but I really do love it more and more each time I look at it. This page takes me back to a wonderful day and makes me smile ... and isn't that really all it's supposed to do?

It looks like a simple page, but it actually took quite some work. I outlined every little thing with my black marker, even my hambly embellies (flowers and butterflies), and in fact they do look rather pretty outlined like that. The white scallops took 3 coats of paint (!!!) before having the desired effect. The title was hand drawn and coloured in with regular markers. Still, all worth the effort to me.

Onto something else ... one of my favorite bloggers of all time is Julie Fei-Fan Balzer. Not only do I love her work, her blog is interesting to read as well and she often shares step by step instructions, which is always fun to watch. Last month, she wrote a few posts about art journaling in which she called out for people to join her in her resolution to "art journal every day". Now I thought long and hard about joining, because I've made resolutions to art journal before, and I always fail to keep it up. Still, I had decided for myself to start art journaling again in 2011, but what really persuaded me was her concept. You don't have to finish a page a day, it really doesn't matter how many pages a year you finish ... all Julie's suggesting is working in your art journal for 10 minutes a day. Start on a page, and add a little something every day... I like that idea! Over 200 people have signed up already, if you want to join as well, you can do so here.

Yesterday I started and completed my cover page. I'm using one of my children's old story books, just because I liked the size of it and it saved me a trip to the shops and kept my money in my pocket :-). The pages are kinda shiny, which worried me a bit, but once I gessoed over them, it worked like a charm! For my cover page, I was inspired by Marit and Lena. Both women are masters in collaging, something which doesn't come easy for me. I've tried before but all my attempts ended up in the bin. Yesterday, I tried again ... here's the result:

I so love the result! I decided not to try too hard, which seemed to have done the trick to finally be able to complete a page like this! I started out modestly ... the head and body don't belong to each other, but they easily could, which they are not supposed to I think. The collage isn't all that obvious, which is why I drew her legs, because even the legs I chose matched the rest of the girl perfectly LOL. I'm sure I'll get better at it if I keep trying, and I will, because it's just so much fun! Obviously this took me more than 10 minutes, but that's okay too. I'll just work in this journal whenever I feel like it, whenever I have some spare time. I'll be fun trying out new techniques in this book without being afraid if it will "match" the rest of the page. This book will be just for me and me only. Can you tell I'm excited about this??

I chose Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote to start off the new year: "To be yourself in world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment". I guess you could say this is my new year's resolution: to try and stay true to myself, but also trying to be the best version of myself. This could possibly include quitting smoking, losing weight, exercising more and so on, but not necessarily. I've tried all of those things before, without result, and I don't feel like setting myself up for failure this year round. I just want to do the best I can, to be the best version possible of who I am right now. That shouldn't be too hard now should it LOL.

I actually started working in this book last year, but I only made one spread about the first week of september (told you I never keep up with these things!!!). But, keeping in the spirit of this book being just for me and for trying out new things, I also did a page prompted by a challenge over at GPP Street Team. The prompt was to make a page just by using a credit card or something to smear out paint, no brushes allowed. I was so surprised by the result, it actually turned out pretty nice:

Haha, I don't know if you can tell, but I tried to make flowers in the foreground and a sky and two trees in the background. And I didn't decide on that untill after quite a few layers ... So this is just layer over layer over layer smeared out paint with an old credit card. Pretty amazing that you can actually make something recognizable that way, isn't it? I'm just leaving it like this in my journal, I don't feel the need to journal over it. I thought about it, which is why I hadn't posted it yet, but decided against it.

With the access paint of this page, I smeared paint all over the next page, just randomly, and yesterday I added a yellow surface. So now the page looks a little like this:

Not impressed??? Well neither am I at this point. But this is the background of my new art journal page. I have absolutely no idea what I'll be doing with it next, but I'm excited to find out LOL!

Have a wonderful first week of the New Year my friends!

xxx Peggy

26 comments:

  1. Allereerst de beste wensen voor dit nieuwe jaar!

    Wat een leuke dingen heb je weer gepost, Peggy!
    Vooral je collage pagina vind ik helemaal super :)

    Ik ga zo nog even kijken bij Julie, lijkt me wel wat dat concept om elke dag 10 minuutjes te journalen :)

    Groetjes Viv

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  2. Wat heb je toch weer veel te vertellen ;)
    Alles ziet er zo mooi uit: die vrolijke layout, een prachtige collega en een geweldig mooie painting!!

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  3. Aaaahhh meissie... je begint het concept van 'niets moet, alles mag' in je vingers te krijgen begrijp ik! And it shows!!!! Wat ee prachtige pagina's Peggy! So heel verschillend, maar zo helemaal los en vrij en JOU! Wat een prachtige start van het nieuwe jaar! Happy New Year! (en, oh ja, zou je niet eens even op mijn blog kijken? hint, hint...)

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  4. Nou, weer een heel verhaal. Ik wil je eerst nog even het allerbeste wensen in 2011!
    Ik vind het zo knap dat je zulke verhalen schrijft en dan ook nog in het Engels! Daar ben ik zooo slecht in..haha. Ik zag dat ik nog niet eens volger was van je blog, terwijl hij al heeeel lang bij mijn favorieten staat! Dat heb ik gelijk nog maar even aangepast!
    Je layout is erg leuk geworden. Leuke foto's ook, ik had er graag bij willen zijn. EN je journal ziet er veelbelovend uit, ik ben heel benieuwd wat er allemaal in komt. Het is wel een heel leuk idee om er elke dag 10 minuutjes aan te werken.
    Liefs, Loes

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  5. Wat een moois weer!! Ik vind je cover helemaal geweldig! En wat een goed voornemen voor 2011 zeg, kan ik me helemaal in vinden!! Ook jij een heel goed 2011!!!

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  6. I loveeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee your lo Peggy!! Its FUN and HAPPY!! And loveeeeeeeeeeeee your journal pages!! I wish I could join in with Julie... I just know that there is NEVER time in my life to do it every day! lol!! :):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)

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  7. I love the 2011 layout! Very unique!

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  8. I don't speak belgian so i'll use English. Thanks peg for your kind comments on my blog.Your work is awesome and this blog is so inspiring.Keep up the great work!

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  9. love the ARTastic page. So bright and happy and fun. And loving the art-journal pages. Can't wait to see the end result!

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  10. I always go on a journey when I read your posts! For a moment in time I forget where I am - and your painting of the trees... that sings vibrant and i love it! love love love it! Your happy page of the three of you for Artastic is perfect! It IS happy!

    And your journal cover - those little figure - AMAZING!!! Love all of it!

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  11. de beste wensen voor 2011!!!
    wat een mooi werk heb je weer gemaakt!!!de lo is zo vrolijk met die foto's van jullie en ik vind je collage helemaal geweldig!!!

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  12. Zooooo... jij hebt niet stilgezeten zeg!! Je cover met de collage vind ik helemaal FANTASTISCH!!!
    En dan die bladzijden gemaakt met een creditcard... echt prachtig!! Ben benieuwd naar het eindresultaat van die gele...!

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  13. Allereerst de beste wensen voor 2011! En wat een mooi werk weer!!! Iedere keer een genot om naar te kijken, en het plezier dat er af straalt, super! En die 10 minuutjes per dag, dat lijkt me ook wel iets... Ben iig heel erg benieuwd naar het resultaat,
    xxx Natalie

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  14. Peggy, wat een geweldige blogpost is dit weer!!! Ik bewonder je Engels, zooooo goed!
    En wat een vrolijke layout heb je gemaakt met onze foto! Een echte 'Peggy'!!
    Ik val in herhaling, denk ik, als ik zeg dat ik je Art Journal voorpagina super vind! Alleen al het feit dat je er aan begonnen bent, vind ik een compliment waard. Ik heb Julie's blogpost ook gelezen en m'n eerste reactie was: ga ik doen, wat is 10 minuten per dag? Maar het is nu al de 5e januari en ik heb er nog geen 10 seconden aan gewerkt... Niks voor mij dus. Denk ik.

    Ik kijk alweer uit naar je volgende post!

    Liefs, Jenneke

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  15. that cover is AMAZING, totally LOVE it.

    as for your layout, it's awesome, I love the design, thanks for stopping by :)

    xx

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  16. Happy New Years Peggy!!! Love the journal pages and your artisitc flair!! I'm hoping to art journal more this year too, now I just need to find more time!! haha

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  17. Love your interpretation of that inspiration! Lovely take!

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  18. Happy New Year to you too, Peggy !!!

    Your artistry is just mindblowing to me - even if your art pages here aren't quite finished !

    Great layout too - couldnt help chuckling abouit yr girls comments about it ! ;)

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  19. Allereerst een super, geweldig, sprankelend, gezond en creatief jaar!!
    Ik ben een beetje aan de late kant...sorrry ;)
    En ik ben wel degelijk onde indruk van je page...wow de energie spat eraf, dat gele is zo mooi en ondanks dat 'ie nog niet af is, vind ik hem nu al top! Hele mooie structuur.
    En je Page zonder journaling is ook al zo mooi, wat gaaf alleen maar maar met verf uitgesmeerd. En er hoeft toch ook niet altijd tekst op, je gevoel overbrengen is ook art journalen.
    En wow, je voorkant is helemaal super...zo mooi dat collaging, en de quote en de grote 2011...sprakeloos gewoon!
    Raad eens ik doe ook mee met Art Journal Every Day...en ik had je blog of die van Marit nog niet gelezen ;) grappig hé!
    We komen elkaar gewoon over weer tegen, we kunnen niet zonder elkaar ;)
    Ik ben ook echt van plan om elke dag wat te art journalen, heerlijk concept en ik moet echt ook meer oefenen. Ik ben al goed begonnen in elk geval.
    En jij hebt je voorkant al gedaan...kijk, die moet ik nog gaan doen...je bent goed bezig Peggy!! LOL!
    Heel veel plezier met je gezinnetje!!
    Liefs, Jeanet

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  20. Wow! Gorgeous stuff! I'm so blown away! (And thanks for your nice comments about my blog!) So glad you're participating in Art Journal Every Day!

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  21. Hi there! You probably don't remember me but you left the very first comment (from someone I didn't already know) when I first started blogging. I'm getting ready to celebrate my 2 year blogoversary next week and just wanted to say thank you for leaving that comment. :)

    Love the beginning of your art journal page!

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  22. I love your credit card painting. I could totally see the flowers, btw. Gorgeous

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  23. Your art journal cover is so cool! The head, body and drawn legs look so quirky together. And I can totally see the white tree on your canvas. Impressive credit card effects.

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  24. Gorgeous work as always. Love the details and color combo.

    By the way, I need your help and support. I made it to Cosmo Crickets Top 10!!! I may get the chance to be part of their Design Team if I get the most votes. Please, please, please vote for me. There is a poll at the right side corner at http://cosmocricket.typepad.com/cosmo_cricket/

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  25. Hoi Peggy, het is wat aan de late kant (tsss) maar nog de beste wensen voor het nieuwe jaar!
    Wat een geweldige blogpost weer. De eerste LO voor artastic is zooo leuk geworden.Met leuke foto's waar het plezier van af spat! De kaft van je journal is SUPER! Net als je creditcard pagina. Ha, ik zag er een bos in voor ik las wat het voor moest stellen. Dus het wat je bedoelde kwam over. Het geel van de volgende pagina is zo stralend. Die word fantastisch dat weet ik zeker. Het idee van Julie om tien min per dag aan je journal te werken staat me wel aan. Net als jij ben ik ook al een paar keer begonnen en weer afgehaakt! Ik heb al een boek gekocht met aquarelpapier. Nu nog beginnen.........

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  26. Hello Peggy!!
    I have't "chatted" with you for so long!! Your post is full of wonderful things! How awesome that you met Jenneke and Jeanet for a wonderful day, and your art journaling is amazzing!!! I LOVE your collage!

    I have a new blog, and since I am on your blog roll (with my old blog) I wanted to tell you. It's www.daniellahayes.blogspot.com

    hope you visit me soon, and I hope you are doing great!!!

    xxD

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